Various types of planters are used to plant new growth bulbs. Some planters may be handheld or performed by hand, some planters may be pulled behind animals or tractors, and some planters may be self propelled. All of the planters generally perform the same tasks: making a hole, placing a bulb in the hole, and filling the hole. The planters may also add growth agent to the hole prior to filling the hole. Based upon the geography of the planting region, different types of planters may be used.
Beaches provide a unique planting region. The ground, covered in sand, may be generally soft and easily plowable. However, additional limitations, such as weight, may be limited due to environmental concerns and performance. Consequently, most planting on beaches is performed by hand, where individuals walk the beach, dig holes, and place bulbs directly into the sand with a growth agent. As individual bulbs are placed in the sand, a planter then refills the holes with the sand removed from the hole. The process may be long and painstaking.
Sea oats may be used to protect the dunes on the beaches from further erosion. Real estate development and storms have destroyed large populations of sea oats, which serve as a beach barrier between the beach and beachside commerce and buildings such as hotels, stores and beach homes. In particular, increased damage due to weather damage, particularly hurricanes, has increased the need for planting. Weather damage, more than destroying the sea oats, also erodes the dunes, thus new planting is needed to rebuild to levels prior to weather damage. Generally, the planting includes teams of individuals, spacing out individual plants a certain distance from other sea oats. In order to increase the rate of planting in order to keep up with replacing and rebuilding dunes frequently damaged by weather, the number of teams and the number of planters on teams have been increased.